Lois wept silently. Maury’s pale complexion was now a sickly white. The couple was too scared too even hold on to one another.
“You need to get off the fence here, bro,” Jim said to Arty. “We’re wasting time.”
Arty stood at the foot of the bed. He held an aluminum baseball bat along the length of his leg. Jim was to the right of the bed, a pistol pointed at the couple.
“I’m still thinking,” Arty said.
“What’s to think about?”
“Leaving too big a mess is what. You feel like cleaning up?”
“No, but our choices were pretty fucking limited from the start. Either someone was home or they weren’t.”
Maury Blocker cleared his throat. “Please,” he said. “If it’s money—”
“Shut up,” Arty said. He spoke to the couple as if they repulsed him. “This has nothing to do with you.”
“Tick tock, bro,” Jim said.
Arty nodded. “I’m just thinking about efficiency. The less mess, the sooner we can get started.”
Jim shrugged. “I’m open to suggestions.”
“Well we gotta get rid of their car, right?”
Jim nodded.
Arty tapped the bat against Lois Blocker’s foot. “How tall are you?”
Her fear meshed with a confused frown. “What?”
“How tall?”
“I don’t…five-two?”
Arty tapped the bat on Maury’s foot. “You?”
“About five-seven, I guess.”
Arty brought the aluminum bat down onto Maury Blocker’s head once, then twice. Lois Blocker screamed after the second hit, immediately prompting her turn. Arty crushed her skull with the first swing.
Panting, Arty turned to his brother, bat in both hands. “Sometimes you just get up to the line of scrimmage and need to call an audible, James my boy.”
Jim started laughing. “The fuck are you talking about?”
Arty threw the bat into the corner where it landed with a distinctive twang. “They’re short little fuckers. We can stuff ’em in the trunk before we ditch the car. I really didn’t feel like digging any holes this weekend.” He tapped the side of his forehead. “Efficiency.”
“I’ve got the smartest big brother in the whole wide world.”
Arty held out a fist. “Rock, scissor, paper to see who strips the sheets?”
28
Patrick and Amy were barely down the length of their driveway when Lorraine called to them from next door.
“Shit,” Patrick whispered.
“Told you,” Amy whispered back.
“You guys back so soon?” Patrick called over to her.
The couple met Lorraine halfway, on the strip of lawn between the two cabins.
“Norman decided to take the kids for ice cream after the film. The parlor is a bit out of the way, so you two still have a good deal of time left to yourselves.” Lorraine winked at them.
“Perfect,” Amy said. “We were just about to take a moon-lit walk around the lake.”
“Romantic stuff, ya know?” Patrick said.
Amy elbowed him. Lorraine smiled and looked up at the sky. “Well you couldn’t have picked a better night for it. It’s a beautiful one.”
Amy looked up with her.
Patrick asked about the kids and Norman again. “So wait, what happened? Did Norm come back and drop you off before heading back out with the kids?”
Lorraine nodded. “I was getting tired. Glad I’m a grandmother now and can give them back at the end of the night. I forgot how exhausting it can be.”
Amy gripped her husband’s forearm with both hands and began dragging him away from Lorraine. “Hence the reason we treasure every minute.”
Patrick pretended he was being dragged harder than he actually was and gave Lorraine a silly look. “I guess that means we’re going. Thanks again Lorraine, we’ll be back soon.”
Lorraine laughed and headed back inside.
* * *
They had just finished their stroll around the lake.
“I don’t see Norm’s car in the driveway yet,” Patrick said, squinting towards the Mitchell’s cabin. “We can do another lap if you want.”
“Oh, so you’re liking this now, are you?” Amy asked.
Patrick looked out onto the lake before answering. The smooth black surface of the lake reflected hypnotic patterns of moonlight that held his gaze like a shiny pendulum.
While the serenity of the cabin and its remote surroundings were the primary motives for their sojourn west, Patrick only just realized, to his own surprise, that it was his wife’s suggestion of observing the lake at night that proved to be the most tranquil and soothing element of the entire vacation thus far.
“Yeah,” he sighed. He pulled her close and looked out onto the lake again. “It really is beautiful.” A shimmer of moonlight reflected off the lake and caressed the contours of Patrick’s face as though it appreciated the compliment.
Amy rubbed his chest. “I’ve got such a big, sensitive man.”
“Sensitive but tough, right?”
“Oh of course,